By SCOTT GUTIERREZ, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Friday, August 29, 2008

Members of the Hells Angels appear to have started a bar fight that ended when an off-duty Seattle police detective shot and wounded a biker during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the Meade County state's attorney in South Dakota said Friday.

"The investigation certainly appears to corroborate that version of events," State's Attorney Jesse Sondreal said in an e-mail to the Seattle P-I.

A grand jury on Thursday indicted Detective Ron Smith, 43, and Joseph McGuire, 33, a Hells Angel member from California, on aggravated assault charges after hearing from 35 witnesses about the Aug. 9 shooting at the Loud American Roadhouse.

Smith, who was vacationing with the Iron Pigs, a law enforcement-oriented motorcycle club, also was charged with perjury for his testimony to the grand jury and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, according to court documents.

The investigation appears to show that the Hells Angels started the fight with the Iron Pigs, Sondreal said. Sondreal did not respond late Friday to further inquiries about the evidence.

Sondreal also told the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal that more people could possibly face charges in the shooting.

Smith said that he was jumped and beaten and fired his weapon in self-defense, according to Seattle Police Officers' Guild officials. McGuire, of Imperial Beach, Calif., was shot in the abdomen and in the leg.

The day after the shooting, sources told the P-I that the Hells Angels members were angered by the Iron Pigs wearing "colors," or three-piece patches that identify the group, into the bar. Some bars in Sturgis ban bikers from wearing colors to prevent violence during the rally.

All four were indicted on charges of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit or in the alternative, failing to abide by the weapon permit of a reciprocal state, court documents say.

Smith, a pawnshop unit detective who also sits on the police guild's board of directors, and McCoy remain on paid administrative leave. Three other Seattle police officers present during the shooting have been returned to duty.

During the investigation, Sturgis police subpoenaed personnel records for the Seattle officers involved, a source inside the Seattle Police Department said Thursday. South Dakota investigators flew to Seattle to review records, the source said.

Smith and McGuire could face up to 15 years' imprisonment if convicted of aggravated assault. The grand jury also indicted on an alternative charge of misdemeanor assault, which would give a jury the choice of a lesser crime.

The misdemeanor version is punishable by up to a year in jail. Perjury, also a felony, could carry a penalty of up to five years.